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The New York Times Sunday Magazine runs a story on how two Swiss architects got grey hairs doing commissions in China.  Herzog & de Meuron got sucked into the vast, murky, elusive web of Chinese business and politics when they won the bid to build the Olympic stadium. They deny the grey hairs being a result of it, but the shock is palpable in de Meuron's unvarnished words:

"This was a very enriching personal experience," he says — but like many such experiences, it was also exhausting and painful. "I am the sort of person who tries to find a solution," he explains. "You bring me problems, and de Meuron tries to solve them. It is too much money, or you can't do it for this building code, or the client wants concrete, not wood — I find another way. This is how it worked for me up to now. In China, it was very different. That was a challenge for me, not only as an architect but as a person. To have someone on the other side and they are experts in misleading you or trapping you. It is never one to one when they say if they like it or don't like it. They played with me."